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As well as laws like this that recognize the reality of the employment relationship, making these jobs decent requires: - unionization and industry bargainin

As well as laws like this that recognize the reality of the employment relationship, making these jobs decent requires: - unionization and industry bargaining to get decent wages and conditions - quality social welfare systems (including universal healthcare) so that people aren't afraid of poverty if they get fired/quit/change jobs I've always wondered why there isn't more of an appetite for Medicare for All and universal healthcare on this site. How many people would like to do a startup but don't because they'd have no health insurance?

kmjg88nvf8 7y ago
Why doesn't anybody do a startup providing health insurance to the uninsured? Are there too many regulations? Insurance is just a business, it seems to me.
- davidgh 7y ago
  The USA did such a startup. It’s called healthcare.gov, AKA Obamacare. It allows you to get health insurance, without consideration for pre-existing conditions and provides you with significant tax credits to offset the premiums, based on your income. Most of the policies are high-deductible, which means you’ll end up paying for the “scratches and sniffles” yourself but have a per-year maximum-out-of-pocket that can be planned for. It’s not perfect but it at least provides an option whereas before if you had any non-trivial pre-existing condition you couldn’t find any insurance at all.
  - kmjg88nvf8 7y ago
    Maybe it is wrong to ask insurances to insure people with pre-existing conditions. Perhaps such cases should be considered charity or social help, and convered by the state? Just wondering if reframing the problem as such could help. I'm not from the US, so not sure what exactly the issues are. It seems healthcare.gov is not good enough yet? I don't think classifying government institutions as startups is really correct, though. They have infinite money supply and no requirement to be profitable.
moduspol 7y ago
> How many people would like to do a startup but don't because they'd have no health insurance? How many people would like to do a startup but don't because they have no food or shelter? We don't really care because the costs of those things are manageable. The problem isn't that the government isn't paying for it. The problem is that it costs way too much.
- djrobstep 7y ago
  > We don't really care because the costs of those things are manageable. You can't be serious. There is a housing affordability crisis throughout the first world. Housing and food are rights. They should indeed be funded by government, through comprehensive social welfare, and in the case of housing, publicly owned housing.
  - moduspol 7y ago
    > There is a housing affordability crisis throughout the first world. Only in the most dense urban areas. Not "throughout the first world." > Housing and food are rights. They should indeed be funded by government, through comprehensive social welfare, and in the case of housing, publicly owned housing. We do provide public housing and food for those who can't afford it, but the people who utilize it often aren't the ones creating startups.

kmjg88nvf8 7y ago

Why doesn't anybody do a startup providing health insurance to the uninsured? Are there too many regulations? Insurance is just a business, it seems to me.

davidgh 7y ago
The USA did such a startup. It’s called healthcare.gov, AKA Obamacare. It allows you to get health insurance, without consideration for pre-existing conditions and provides you with significant tax credits to offset the premiums, based on your income. Most of the policies are high-deductible, which means you’ll end up paying for the “scratches and sniffles” yourself but have a per-year maximum-out-of-pocket that can be planned for. It’s not perfect but it at least provides an option whereas before if you had any non-trivial pre-existing condition you couldn’t find any insurance at all.
- kmjg88nvf8 7y ago
  Maybe it is wrong to ask insurances to insure people with pre-existing conditions. Perhaps such cases should be considered charity or social help, and convered by the state? Just wondering if reframing the problem as such could help. I'm not from the US, so not sure what exactly the issues are. It seems healthcare.gov is not good enough yet? I don't think classifying government institutions as startups is really correct, though. They have infinite money supply and no requirement to be profitable.

moduspol 7y ago

> How many people would like to do a startup but don't because they'd have no health insurance? How many people would like to do a startup but don't because they have no food or shelter? We don't really care because the costs of those things are manageable. The problem isn't that the government isn't paying for it. The problem is that it costs way too much.

djrobstep 7y ago
> We don't really care because the costs of those things are manageable. You can't be serious. There is a housing affordability crisis throughout the first world. Housing and food are rights. They should indeed be funded by government, through comprehensive social welfare, and in the case of housing, publicly owned housing.
- moduspol 7y ago
  > There is a housing affordability crisis throughout the first world. Only in the most dense urban areas. Not "throughout the first world." > Housing and food are rights. They should indeed be funded by government, through comprehensive social welfare, and in the case of housing, publicly owned housing. We do provide public housing and food for those who can't afford it, but the people who utilize it often aren't the ones creating startups.